“You are what you eat!” and this one is what most of us read us more often and believe in it. Your body totally depends on what goes inside it and much more consciousness is required to be able to feed it with foods that provide health and nutrition to your body.
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What goes without saying is that maintaining a healthy weight is the first step towards a healthy you but how, and that is exactly what we are going to discuss in the following article.
While there are foods that act as an elixir to your body, there are also some foods that can have a major negative effect on your body weight, particularly when you are trying to lose weight and in the long term.
While foods like yogurt, coconut oil and eggs aid to lose weight, refined and processed foods take you towards weight gain.
Yogurt a Great Aid in Weight Loss?
- According to The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, “Although yogurt and milk have a generally similar nutrient composition, yogurt is a relatively unique dairy product.
- Because of its specific manufacturing procedures and fermentation, many nutrients, including protein, riboflavin, vitamin B-6, vitamin B-12, calcium, potassium, zinc, and magnesium, are more concentrated (ranging from 20% to >100%) in yogurt than in milk; and the acidity of yogurt increases the bioavailability of specific nutrients such as calcium.
- In a recent cross-sectional analysis in 6526 American adults, we found that yogurt consumers were more likely than those who did not consume yogurt to have a better overall diet quality and a higher potassium intake and were less likely to have inadequate intakes of riboflavin, vitamin B-12, calcium, magnesium, and zinc.
- Yogurt also has more lactic acid and galactose but less lactose than milk. In addition to increased protein concentrations, yogurt has higher concentrations of specific peptides and free amino acids than milk.
- Moreover, probiotics in yogurt have possible health benefits. Although there has been growing interest in yogurt’s relation to gut and immunologic function and aspects of cardiometabolic health, this remains understudied in relation to weight maintenance.”
10 Foods to Avoid When You Are Trying to Lose Weight
1. Fried Versions of Potatoes- French Fries and Potato Chips
Talking about potatoes, whole potatoes are nutritious and fill you up easily but its fried versions like French fries, chips and wafers are hazardous for your health and weight. Their calorie content is way too high on top of which, their addictive taste does not let you stop at just one!
According to US National Library of Medicine National Institute of Health, “On the basis of increased daily servings of individual dietary components, 4-year weight change was most strongly associated with the intake of potato chips (1.69 lb), potatoes (1.28 lb), sugar-sweetened beverages (1.00 lb), unprocessed red meats (0.95 lb), and processed meats (0.93 lb) and was inversely associated with the intake of vegetables (-0.22 lb), whole grains (-0.37 lb), fruits (-0.49 lb), nuts (-0.57 lb), and yogurt (-0.82 lb) (P≤0.005 for each comparison).” The study also suggests that potato chips have more weight gain per serving than any other food – dangerous that is!
2. Sugar Laced Drinks
Drinks loaded with sugar like soft drinks, soda, energy drinks, etc are one of the worst things you can feed your body. Their consumption is directly proportional to weight gain – in fact, the weight starts racing with each sip of the sugary drink you consume.
Besides weight gain, these drinks have a hazardous on your health and may even lead to long term illnesses like Type 2 Diabetes if consumed in excess. As per Medical News Today, “Sugary drinks have frequently been cited as a seemingly innocuous, easily available product with a harmful potential when it comes to preserving our health.
A study published last year, for example, showed that the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) is linked to the onset of metabolic diseases. And now, researchers from multiple institutions across the globe — including the Special Institute for Preventive Cardiology and Nutrition in Salzburg, Austria, the Geneva University Hospitals in Switzerland, and the University of Navarra in Spain — have teamed up to analyze recent studies targeting the potential link between sugary drinks and obesity.”
Dr Nathalie Farpour-Lambert goes on to say that “The evidence base linking SSBs with obesity and overweight in children and adults has grown substantially in the past 3 years”.
When you feed your body with sugary drinks, they don’t get registered as solid foods.
Thus you remain hungry and end up consuming calories besides the ones consumed through the drinks. And then you must definitely forget about losing weight!
3. White Refined Bread
We all know white bread is highly processed and refined and also contains a high amount of sugar. It is also known to be high on the glycemic index which could increase your blood sugar level. According to WebMD, “There was no significant link between eating whole grain bread only and becoming overweight or obese.
This may be because of the types of carbohydrates, fiber content and other ingredients in whole grain bread”, according to Professor Miguel Martinez-Gonzalez, the University of Navarra in Spain.
The research also says that “Consumption of white bread [of] two portions per day or more showed a significant direct association with the risk of becoming overweight or obese.”
4. Fruit Juices Especially Canned
Most canned varieties of fruit juices contain very little or no fruits at all. In fact, these juices are loaded with sugars and preservatives, which are highly unhealthy for your body. As a matter of fact, their sugar and calorie content can be compared to that of aerated drinks, if not more.
The juices are stripped off all their fiber content, which obviously makes the need to chew fly out of the window. It thus makes it easier to consume a much more quantity which otherwise would be reduced if you ate a whole fruit instead.
According to News Medical Life Sciences, “A new study that analyzed data from more than 49,000 women concludes that drinking 100 per cent fruit juice leads to weight gain, while consumption of fresh whole fruit results to lose weight.”
5. Confectionery Products Containing White Flour and Sugar
Refined confectionery items like pastries, cookies and cakes are loaded with unhealthy ingredients like added sugar and refined flour. The high content of artificial trans fats is also found in these products which are highly bad for health and weight goals alike.
Because these items hardly contain any nutrients, there is no satiation for the mind and body and thus, you are left feeling hungry again very soon.
6. Alcoholic Beverages Especially Beer and Liqueur
Drinking alcohol in moderation is fine but becomes a health concern when consumed in excess. Heavy consumption of alcohol is directly linked to weight gain as is to liver illnesses as well.
According to the Victoria State Government’s Better Health Channel, “The Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (FARE) conducted a systematic review on alcohol and obesity and found that:
- It is unclear whether alcohol consumption is a risk factor for weight gain because studies performed to date have found positive, negative or no association.
- Where there is a positive association between alcohol and body weight it is more likely to be found in men than in women.
- The present data provide inadequate scientific evidence to assess whether beer intake is associated with general or abdominal obesity.
- When considering beer, where there is a positive association, it is more likely to be for abdominal obesity (abdominal fat around the stomach) than for general obesity for men and women.”
While beer can cause weight gain, drinking a glass or two of wine can actually prove beneficial for your health.
7. Ice Creams and Other Sweets
Sugar is disastrous for your weight loss goals and sweets & ice creams are the easiest ways to lure you towards this deadly ingredient commonly found in our foods.
Nevertheless, we agree that life without ice cream and sweetness would become a bit too bland and suggest you go for sugar-free options with natural ingredients like real fruits, nuts, etc. As per WebMD, Eating less sugar is linked with weight loss, and eating more is linked with weight gain, according to a new review of published studies.
The review lends support to the idea that advising people to limit the sugar in their diets may help lessen excess weight and obesity, the New Zealand researchers conclude. “The really interesting finding is that increasing and decreasing sugar had virtually identical results [on weight], in the opposite direction of course,” says researcher Jim Mann, DM, PhD, professor of human nutrition and medicine at the University of Otago.
8. Pizzas and Burgers
With the growing trend of fast foods in every country including India, pizza is one of the most sought after quick fix meals amongst adults as well as children.
However, a market bought pizza is extremely healthy, though it might appear much appealing and even healthy with all those bright veggie and grilled meat toppings. Pizzas are loaded with calories and refined flour – ingredients highly detrimental for weight loss.
To enjoy a healthy pizza, bake one at home where you can you whole wheat flour for your base and good quality cheese. In case of a store-bought pizza, you can never be sure of even the cheese being used! The same goes for burgers too!
Going by what the Financial Express has to say about fast foods, “Besides contributing to weight gain in adults, energy-dense foods such as hamburgers and pizza may also increase risk of cancer, suggests new research.
The researchers wanted to find out how the ratio of energy to food weight, otherwise known as dietary energy density (DED), contributes to cancer risk. They looked at DED in the diets of post-menopausal women. The findings, published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, showed that consuming energy dense foods was tied to a 10 per cent increase in obesity-related cancer among normal-weight women.”
9. Sugar Laden Coffees and Frappes with Cream
While coffee has quite a number of health benefits, we often tend to kill them for taste. And we do this by adding full-fat milk, sugar and cream to the nice old coffee to make it brand new.
This is exactly where the trap lays. Addition of cream, sugar and other chemically curated ingredients that go in the making of a “fancy” coffee kill the goodness of caffeine and serve as nothing more than weight gain aids.
Sweetened coffees are as good or bad as any other sugary drink and can completely destroy your weight loss agendas. Black coffee should be your go-to drink if you wish to lose weight. Even adding a little milk is fine but not sugar!
According to fitness expert Robert DeVito, “Coffee (which contains caffeine (a stimulant)) will not cause weight gain. There are multiple studies to show coffee’s usage in weight loss programs. However, you must be mindful of what you add to your coffee.
If you make a coffee drink, then it is no longer just coffee, i.e. milk, sugar, chocolate syrup etc. Coffee has zero calories, but you must add up all of the calories that you add to it. Your sugar may add 100-150 calories, your milk can be 100-300 calories, and so on. There are some coffee drinks that have anywhere from 200-700 calories per drink. This is where these drinks certainly could aid in weight gain.”
10. Added Sugar and Salt in Foods
Both sugar, as well as salt, additionally added to your food is hazardous for your health and wellbeing. Excessive amounts of salt and sugars in your food lead to a host of illnesses. Sugars are empty calories and should be totally avoided.
Foods like breakfast cereals, energy bars, sweetened yogurts, etc are typical examples of such foods and the irony is that they are considered healthy.
According to Liz Applegate, PhD, lecturer in nutrition at the University of California at Davis “Cereal bars are a convenient alternative for someone who would otherwise be reaching for a doughnut or using the vending machines for snacks at the office. But there’s nothing magical about these bars. Most of them are fine, but some are too high in fat.”
If you aim to hop on to the weight losers bandwagon, stop these foods today and opt for healthier versions. We at Possible will help you achieve this.
Talk to our Possible Nutritionist today and begin your journey to a new life today. The first consultation is on us.
Nice blog.
Hi! Thank you and keep following our blog to know more health information.